Updates from Birmingham, AL

Talk about signal news here, including upgrades, downgrades, crossings out of service, abandoned, and so on here.

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freebrickproductions
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Updates from Birmingham, AL

Post by freebrickproductions » Sat Mar 23, 2019 2:12 pm

First off, at 54th Street and 6th Avenue, two of the Safetran mechanical bells were replaced with WCH electronic bells, as seen in this video:


And for anyone curious, here's a video that Birmingham-Rail Productions on YouTube got at the crossing a few years back, showing all three of the Safetran bells when they were still there:


No videos of these next two updates, but worthwhile mentions anyways:

Firstly, the WCH mechanical bell at 50th Street has been repaired (apparently for a long while now), but sounds very, very flat.

And finally the Safetran Type 3 e-bell at 41st Street #2 died and has been replaced with a General Signals Type 3 e-bell. The WCH mechanical bell is still there.

These were all of the updates I found while out in Birmingham chasing the ATN yesterday, 3-22-19.
They/Them for me, please.

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Re: Updates from Birmingham, AL

Post by freebrickproductions » Sat Jun 29, 2019 4:11 pm

A few updates from the Birmingham area over the past two days:

#1. In Bessemer, 32nd Street has had both Safetran mechanical bells, plus the gate arm and gate lights, on the NS crossing replaced. The bells are now two General Signals e-bells and the gate lights are now NEG LEDs. CSX has also upgraded the overhead lights on their signal to LED, with one pair using Dialight Ball and the other using Dialight Low Wattage LEDs. Didn't get an update video here, for some reason. Guess I just forgot.

#2. In Birmingham, 56th Street and 50th Street have both had their old US&S signals repainted by the ATN. The bell at 56th Street got a fresh coat of black paint, while 50th Street's bell was repainted silver. Not sure if the old US&S signals in Irondale got fresh coats of paint, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

#3. While not on the site (yet), Johnson Street in Alton has had the messed-up gate fixed, and it now fully lowers.
They/Them for me, please.

Click here if you want to submit crossing photos to the site!

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